Chickpea protein in the spotlight as high-profile investors pump $8m into Nutriati

By Elaine Watson+Elaine WATSON21-Apr-20172017-04-21T00:00:00ZLast updated on 21-Apr-2017 at 01:30 GMT2017-04-21T01:30:33Z

Commercial quantities of highly functional, neutral-tasting chickpea protein concentrates and a high-protein chickpea ‘flour’ will be available by the end of the year, says Richmond-based Nutriati, which has just closed an $8m financing round to help take its plant-based wares to market.

The products will be manufactured by Nutriati and co-packers using its patent-pending technology, while New Jersey-based health ingredients specialist PLT Health Solutions, an early investor in Nutriati, will be the exclusive sales and marketing partner.

Test marketing

He added: “We’ve gone from bench to pilot scale, and we’ve been in front of a number of customers that have indicated incredible interest. We’re in a test market with a beverage in the natural food channel and a number of other manufacturers are working with our flour and protein concentrate.

“We’ve invested capital at contract manufacturers and we’ve invested our own capital to put our technology in place as a complementary process step or steps to the contract manufacturing facility. We aim to be ready for commissioning in October, with products ready to ship in November, December time.

“That should take us over several thousand metric tons a year of processing capability, and beyond that, we'll have to decide how and where we’ll expand – in North America or elsewhere – but so far the market has been tremendously complimentary about what we’re doing.”

No beany taste

Fast-growing brands such as Banza (chickpea pasta), neat (egg replacers, meat analogs and baking mixes) and Rule Breaker (chickpea brownies) have been waxing lyrical about the technical as well as nutritional properties of chickpeas for some time, while a growing number of brands from The Good Bean and Biena Foods to Hippeas now use chickpeas in snacks.

However, chickpea protein is still relatively unknown to food formulators as it’s not produced on a commercial scale by any of the major players in plant proteins, despite the fact that chickpeas are very widely grown and relatively cheap compared to some other potential new sources of plant-based protein.

Nutriati’s chickpea protein - which is white, odorless, and neutral-tasting with a hint of nutty sweetness – has no ‘beany taste,’ which makes it “very compelling” for manufacturers of products such as plant-based beverages and ice cream, said Spinelli, a food R&D veteran who rose up the ranks at Ben & Jerry’s and chickpea-fueled brand Sabra, and teamed up with Altria exec Richard Kelly to form Nutriati in late 2013.

Chickpea protein has unique functional and organoleptic properties

He added: “We’ve heard from a number of companies that it’s closest to whey protein as far as flavor goes. We’ve proven we can replace plant and even dairy proteins with excellent organoleptic results in things like milk replacement. When you look at foaming, mouthfeel, and viscosity, we can offer functionality that you don’t get from some of the other [commercially available] plant proteins, so you may also be able to reduce or remove hydrocolloids in these products.

“It also performs exceptionally well on extrusion for meat alternatives.”

The ‘flour’ meanwhile, which is made from co-products of the protein production process, has proved equally attractive to food formulators, who have been working with both materials for some time, noted Spinelli, who said Nutriati had raised an initial $750k, followed by $1.5m from NRV before closing its latest, $8m, funding round.

“We didn’t want to be another company producing protein concentrates and a commodity starch as a byproduct, so we came up with a gluten-free flour that is white and fine that behaves much like a wheat pastry flour that does an extraordinary job in leavened and unleavened breads.

"It’s got 12-14% protein and we see some mimicking of wheat gluten behavior; we think we know why that’s happening, so we’ve designed that into the process so we retain the quality attributes.”

Chickpeas are just the beginning

While soy, rice and peas still dominate the plant-based protein market, several companies are now exploring the potential of chickpea protein as it is has an excellent amino acid profile, is non-allergenic, non-GMO, tastes better than pea protein and has some interesting functional properties, said Spinelli, who said Nutriati is looking at a variety of pulse crops in order to build a broader platform of products.

“We’re not a chickpea company, we’re looking at a variety of legumes and further down the road, maybe if someone is looking for a blend of plant-based proteins to meet a specific amino acid profile, or PDCAAS, we might be able to entertain that and address a niche play in the market for super premium customized ingredients. We haven’t built a 50,000t soy protein plant, so we’re very flexible."

Tate & Lyle Ventures: First mover advantage is very important in the food industry

David Atkinson, managing partner at Tate & Lyle Ventures, told FoodNavigator-USA that aside from the fact that plant-based protein is clearly a hot investment opportunity right now, Spinelli’s reputation as a formulator and his ability to work with customers on applications was a significant plus from an investment perspective.

He added: “Lots of companies are looking at chickpeas, but first mover advantage is very important in the food industry. They do have some intellectual property around the process [click HERE, HERE and HERE], but part of the [IP] protection is in trade secrets and the insights and experience of the team.

"What also gave us confidence was the tests they have done with potential customers through PLT, where they had incredible feedback. As part of the due diligence, some of PowerPlant Ventures’ portfolio companies also tested the product, and they were all raving about how good it was.”

Comments (2)

M. M. Krishna, Ph.D., CFS - 23 Apr 2017 | 08:56

What is the EAA COMPOSITION OF Chickpea protein and how does it compare with Milk nd other plant proteins in terms of protein quality (PDCAAS) value?

23-Apr-2017 at 20:56 GMT

Raj Kumar Bhandari - 21 Apr 2017 | 07:48

Doctor

Chick pea is an excellent source of plant protein. I am interested working in the field of product development, including development of energy dense nutrition food products for malnourished children. Willing to collaborate on this

21-Apr-2017 at 19:48 GMT

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